Category: Leadership

Who comes to mind when you think about a great spiritual leader? The Apostle Paul? Billy Graham? Martin Luther, or one of the Reformers? One of the reasons we may not think of Barnabas is that he seems like a normal guy in the New Testament. That’s one of the reasons our church has a series called “Just Like...more

Winston Churchill described political rival, Clement Attlee, as “a modest man, who has much to be modest about.” No one mistook that for a compliment. He also said Attlee was a “sheep in sheep’s clothing.” Again, “an empty taxi arrived at 10 Downing Street, and when the door was open, Attlee got out.” Is modesty proof of a weak...more

One of the things I love about serving at our church is that there is an intentional emphasis on soul care and the need for ministers (and all believers) to care for their souls. In fact, one of the gifts the church gives our ministers is a monthly spiritual retreat day for prayer, study, and spiritual refreshment. Our pastor...more

Followers of Jesus cannot read the Bible without understanding that he is the climax of the Bible’s Story and that the Old Testament points to and anticipates him as the fulfillment of all the types and promises of Scripture. Jesus himself instructed us to read the Bible using a Christ-centered approach. Consider these passages: John 5:39: “You search the...more

There are prophets throughout the Old Testament, often found in the narrative accounts, such as Elijah and Elisha. The emphasis here, however, is in the prophetic books from Isaiah—Malachi, books at the end of the Old Testament. Prophecy is often understood as something that predicts the future. Though these elements can certainly be found in the prophetic books, it’s...more

The wisdom genre of the Bible may best be seen in the books of Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes. Each of these teach a perspective on how to live life, and particularly in relationship to God. The beauty of these three books is that they complement one another and allow for the multi-faceted perspectives we need on wisdom. The Book...more

Most of the Bible’s poetic books and passages are in the Old Testament. Hebrew poetry appears frequently in the Old Testament. The Book of Psalms may be the best example of this, though poetry is sprinkled throughout the Old Testament, at times thrown in among the books that are otherwise characterized by narrative or prophecy, for example. Perhaps the...more

PART 2 Last time we emphasized the importance of context when reading or teaching narrative. This includes the literary context, the historical context, the cultural context and the geographical context. Another important element in studying narrative is to distinguish between what is descriptive and prescriptive. Descriptive means the biblical author is merely describing what took place, with no value...more

PART 1 Everyone loves a good story, and the Bible is full of stories. In fact, over forty percent of the Old Testament would be classified as narrative, and the Gospels and Acts in the New Testament also generally fall into this category. One popular book on interpreting the Bible defines narrative this way: “Narratives are stories—purposeful stories retelling...more

Reflections on John 13: 1-17 In his best-selling book Good to Great, Jim Collins and his research team discovered something perhaps surprising about the CEO’s who led companies to beat out their industry competitors over a given period of time. They tended not to be the bombastic, charismatic types that were larger than life, and had egos to match....more